Ron DeSantis once threatened to spend a million taxpayer dollars to fight for Florida State football.
The Seminoles rewarded that loyalty with the worst bowl loss in the history of college football.
And now DeSantis’ own children are done with them – which tells you everything you need to know about where this program stands today.
The Governor Who Went to War for Them
In December 2023, DeSantis went to battle.
Florida State finished the season 13-0, won the ACC championship, and the College Football Playoff committee still left them out.
DeSantis was furious.
He allocated $1 million in state funds for potential litigation against the selection committee.
Attorney General Ashley Moody launched an antitrust probe.
FSU got its consolation prize – a spot in the Orange Bowl against Georgia.
Georgia won 63-3.
It was not just a loss.
It was the largest margin of victory in the history of college bowl games.
The Seminoles managed 209 total yards, turned the ball over four times, and lost by eleven points more than any team had ever beaten them before.
DeSantis had staked his political capital and a million taxpayer dollars defending this team's honor – and they showed up to the biggest stage they had and got humiliated in front of the entire country.
What Happened Next Was Even Worse
The 63-3 collapse was supposed to be rock bottom.
It wasn't.
FSU went 2-10 in 2024 – their worst record in 50 years.
They averaged 15.4 points per game, one of the lowest-scoring offenses in all of college football.
ESPN calculated that Florida State's win percentage fell 82.9 percentage points in a single season – a collapse so complete that searching the entire history of the sport turns up only three programs that fell harder, two of which were playing during World War I.
Coach Mike Norvell kept his job only because firing him would cost Florida State $50 million.
Then 2025 arrived and the Seminoles went 5-7.
Ten consecutive road losses.
https://twitter.com/10TampaBay/status/1732071116225540547?s=20
A second straight losing ACC record.
Ineligible for a bowl game.
The program that was one committee vote away from the national championship had become a program that couldn't win away from home for two straight years.
During the 2024 collapse, DeSantis spoke at Notre Dame while his son Mason was "really struggling" with the team's 1-6 start. Standing in enemy territory, he correctly predicted Florida State would lose in South Bend that day.
He called it before it happened.
That's what this program had become – so predictably bad that even its most prominent defender had learned to expect the worst.
His Own Kids Are Out
Thursday in Lake City, DeSantis made the surrender official.
His three children had grown up in Tallahassee their entire lives.
Surrounded by Seminole culture, they became natural fans.
DeSantis had been proud of it.
"They're not as optimistic as they had been two years ago with the hope and everything," DeSantis said Thursday.
Then he turned his attention to the Gators – who went 4-8 last year and carry a losing record over the past three seasons.
"Both of them need to up their games from recent years," DeSantis said.
The Governor of Florida publicly called out both flagship football programs in his state in the same breath.
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1974503178000269766?s=20
Not as a political figure making a calculated statement.
As a dad whose kids stopped caring.
And three years after he went to bat for this program – with state money, with his office, with his own credibility – he's sitting in Lake City describing his children losing faith in it.
Mike Norvell enters 2026 seven-and-eighteen since that 2023 ACC title run, counting the Orange Bowl, facing Alabama in Tuscaloosa in just his second game of the season, on a buyout so massive it's the only thing keeping him employed.
The kids of Florida's governor – children who grew up breathing Seminole football – have given up on what he's built.
When DeSantis can't even hold his own household, Norvell has a serious problem.
Sources:
- A.G. Gancarski, "Ron DeSantis reveals that his children are cooling on Florida State football after subpar seasons," Florida Politics, August 27, 2026.
- "Georgia vs. Florida State score: Bulldogs obliterate Seminoles to boast biggest blowout in bowl game history," CBS Sports, December 31, 2023.
- "FSU Football Listed as Having One of the Most Disappointing Seasons in 2024," Sports Illustrated, January 8, 2025.
- "Can Florida State football recover from its historic collapse?" ESPN, November 19, 2024.
- "Mike Norvell remaining at Florida State for 2026 season," CBS Sports, 2025.
